


The Education of Harry Potter

by HPFandom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drama, M/M, Romance, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-02-02
Updated: 2007-02-02
Packaged: 2018-09-30 10:35:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10161263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HPFandom_archivist/pseuds/HPFandom_archivist
Summary: Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts four years after HBP in order to complete the education he had forfeit to concentrate on the war with VoldemortDisclaimer: HP and co belong to JK Rowling





	

**Author's Note:**

> Note from SeparatriX, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [HP Fandom](http://fanlore.org/wiki/HP_Fandom_\(archive\)), which was closed for health and financial reasons. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in August 2016. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [HP Fandom collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hpfandom/profile).

It had been four years since Harry had stepped foot on Hogwarts’ grounds. He had kept his word and not returned for his seventh year. Those four years seemed both short and unbearably long. The Boy Who Lived had fulfilled his prophecy at the cost of his and many of his friends’ innocence and in some cases lives. 

The title of Voldemort’s defeater did not win him a free ride in society though. He did have money from his parents and from Sirius but had no desire to wander through life without a purpose. This is what brought him back to Hogwarts; he had come to finish his education.

Headmistress McGonagall had contacted Harry about the possibility of returning to Hogwarts. His initial reaction had been a horrified vision of him in a classroom full of seventeen year old girls fawning all over him. After several owls passed between the two of them it was decided that Harry would only attend those classes that he truly needed the extra hands on experience with. Harry would use his time at Hogwarts to study for his NEWTS with the help of the large library and a few of the professors. He would mostly be on his own but for potions and transfigurations. Lucky for Harry Severus Snape no longer taught potions at Hogwarts so perhaps he would stand a chance of learning something. 

Harry pulled the strap of his bag up over his head so that it stretched diagonally across his chest. He bent slightly at the waist and picked up the black pet carrier before striding across the lawn and up the main stairs. His hand trembled a tad as he reached out to grasp the old bronze handle, the moment he had pushed it completely open he found himself being gathered in the arms of the still frizzy haired Hermione Weasley. 

“Harry, you’re late I was getting worried that you’d changed your mind.” She let her arms drop and allowed Harry to back up a step and take a breath. “You look good, Harry.”

“Thanks. Er what are you doing here? Shit you’re not going to be one of my professors are you?”

“Well actually Harry, the Headmistress has only just offered me the Transfiguration position. Isn’t that wonderful?” Hermione gave him a large smile and Harry’s chest clenched at the thought of Hermione being his professor.

His voice cracked slightly when he responded, “That’s great Hermione. Congratulations.” 

The two spoke quietly as they ascended the stairs to McGonagall’s office where Harry was to report upon arrival. When they reached the gargoyle Harry stood for a moment and stared at the statue, he had not entered Dumbledore’s old office in three years. In his search for the horcruxes he had spent hours going through the old man’s trinkets after a cryptic message from Snape. To think that a part of Voldemort’s soul had been hiding inside a paperweight that Dumbledore had kept in a cluttered bottom drawer of his desk. Harry wondered when he found it what would have happened if he had destroyed it that time in fifth year when he had shattered so many of Dumbledore’s possessions. 

Hermione reached over and placed her hand on his arm for a moment before speaking the password, “Remembrall.” Harry’s lips quirked up into a smile as he recalled his initial reaction to McGonagall dragging him through the castle in search of Wood when she witnessed him catch Neville’s remembrall. The small smile turned into a sigh at the thought of the last time he’d seen Neville, his body bruised and bloody as a white sheet was draped over him.

The old gargoyle statue slide to the side as the moving staircase appeared before them. Harry stepped on to the bottom step and waved to Hermione as the wall closed up behind him. The staircase twisted its way up to the oak door that was ajar. Quiet mummers made Harry hesitate. The voices were distorted but a part of Harry ached with recognition. 

After a moment the frustrated voice of McGonagall called for Harry to come in. He pushed the large door open the rest of the way and stepped inside the office. He took in the scene before him and couldn’t help but smile at the frown on the Headmistress’s face. Standing before the fireplace in a long teal robe was none other than Luna Lovegood. Her dirty blond hair was pulled back in a braid that reached her waist. Small twigs and leaves were scattered in her hair in a way that made Harry know she had purposely done it in some pattern known only to her. 

“Luna,” her name came out in a whisper. She turned toward him then, the flames from the fire flickering over her face causing her silvery gray eyes to glow orange. The radishes still hung from her ears, a thin cord of leather with a quill tied to it had replaced her butterbeer cork necklace. Harry fought the urge to blush as the image of them entangled in a heated embrace, the corks flying through the air as he tore her blouse from her came to his mind. 

“Hello Harry Potter.” She closed the distance between them and stuck her pale hand out to him. Her skin was warm from the fire and Harry held on to it till the Headmistress’s quiet cough drew his attention. 

“Potter, it is good to see you on Hogwarts’ grounds again. I was quite pleased when you accepted the invitation to come back and finish your education.” She gestured for him to take a seat. 

Luna stepped up to the desk and slid a parchment to McGonagall’s folded hands. “Here is my official request Headmistress.” 

The older woman glanced down at the parchment and groaned at the green ink that sparkled when the sun hit it. “Thank you Professor Lovegood. If you’ll see yourself out I have to discuss Potter’s courses with him.”

Harry gave Luna a smile and she softly shut the door behind her. McGonagall let out a sigh and rolled the parchment up. “Why I ever thought that girl would make a good professor is beyond me.”

“What exactly is Luna teaching, Headmistress?” The Ravenclaw had stood beside him during many heated battles and had held her own but he still couldn’t forget that this was the girl who believed in Crumple-horned Snorkacks. 

“The only course I could truly entrust with her, Divination.” She placed the rolled up parchment in her desk drawer. “While she has her moments of clarity and she is a Ravenclaw I just could not envision her teaching my students anything to serious. She has in her mind though that she should be able to take the sixth and seventh years on an outing.”

“What like a field trip, ma’am?” 

“Yes a field trip that’s what she called it. She thinks I will allow her to take them to some American place that she claims is known as the most magical place on Earth.” She shook her head as if to rid it of the thought. “Now then, let’s discuss your studies.” 

She pulled open another drawer and removed a scroll which she then handed to Harry. “Here is a list of the courses you need to complete. The professors are listed and their office hours. I thought it best if you discussed with each of them what they feel the best approach will be to your studies.”

Harry unrolled the scroll and glanced briefly, the courses were the same ones he had been taking before he left Hogwarts at the end of sixth year. Some of the professors were the same and there were a couple names he didn’t recognize immediately. Harry grinned when he saw that Kingsley had taken on the Defense Against the Dark Arts position. He had been badly injured in the final battle and still walked with a limp.

They talked for a few minutes about where he was to stay while at Hogwarts. McGonagall dismissed him with an almost smile. Harry walked out to the moving staircase and took one last glance at the scroll she had handed him. He groaned when he saw Luna’s name scrawled on the bottom of it with her seemingly random office hours. He stuck the scroll in an inside pocket of his robe, placed the animal carrier under his arm and whispered to it, “its going to be a long year with no DE attacks or Voldemort to interrupt my studies.”


End file.
